PREVIEW – While we don’t know the technical specs and the price of the new Nintendo console, there are quite a few things that we can mention.

 

The Nintendo Switch has a tablet-like display with a detachable controller on each side. These are called Joy-Cons. You can play similarly like on a Wii U GamePad, but you don’t need a television. There will be shoulder buttons, similar to the previous N console, and it’s also going to have a 3.5mm jack port to play silently with a headset on. However, the display doesn’t seem to be touchscreen because everyone was playing with controllers.

If we put the display into the dock, we can turn the Switch into a (somewhat?) regular console. We can still detach the two Joy-Cons to use them as controllers, or put them on a grip accessory to get a somewhat large looking joypad, but you can also get a (possibly Pro?) Switch controller to use as well – it will likely be sold separately.

The Nintendo Switch uses NVidia’s Tegra chip, making Nintendo‘s product the first mainstream console to not use an x86 instruction set and go for ARM instead. This difference might be a problem when it comes to porting PS4/X1 games to the Switch. We don’t know what Tegra it exactly is, but according to NVidia, it’s based on high-end desktop GeForce GPU architectures. (AKA GeForce 10-series.) It’s capable of HD graphics – the rumors said that the display could do 720p, and when docked, it can pull 1080p off, but we have yet to see Nintendo confirm that.

The Nintendo Switch will come with Amiibo-support, which means that you should keep your 3DS/Wii U Amiibo-collection. The Switch‘s dock has two USB ports, too – it will be either used for connecting other devices, or to charge the Joy-Con controllers. Games will come on SD-card like cartridges, but if the limit is 32 gigabytes, some games might require compression, similar to the Nintendo 64 two decades ago. (Back then, the limit was 512 megabit, 64 megabytes.)

In the trailer, we saw Mario Kart 8 with a new character (King Boo) – will there be a new version on the Switch? Same goes for Splatoon. Or will they be both sequels? Speaking of games, here’s the complete list of partners of the Nintendo Switch – it is much bigger than the Wii U’s initial support:

 

• 505 Games
• Level-5
• Activision Publishing
• Marvelous
• Arc System Works
• Maximum Games
• Atlus
• Nippon Ichi Software
• Audiokinetic
• Parity Bit
• Autodesk
• PlatinumGames
• Bandai Namco
• RAD Game Tools
• Bethesda
• RecoChoku
• Capcom
• Sega
• Codemasters
• Silicon Studio Corporation
• CRI Middleware
• Spike Chunsoft
• DeNA
• Square Enix
• Electronic Arts
• Starbreeze Studios
• Epic Games
• Take-Two Interactive Software
• Firelight Technologies
• Telltale Games
• FromSoftware
• THQ Nordic
• Frozenbyte
• Tokyo RPG Factory
• GameTrust
• TT Games
• Grasshopper Manufacture
• Ubisoft
• Gungho Online Entertainment
• Ubitus
• Hamster Corporation
• Unity Technologies
• Havok
• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Inti Creates
• Web Technology Corp
• Koei Tecmo
• Konami Digital Entertainment

 

Interesting fact: while we saw Skyrim in the Switch trailer, Bethesda didn’t confirm that the game is heading to the new platform. DeNA = mobile games.

So far, that’s all we know. The initial reactions are promising for the new Nintendo Switch. We hope we’ll hear the specifications of the platform, as well its price shortly. We’d also appreciate the list of launch titles for the Switch, too…

-V-